With the Help of Magic

by xDimitrii

Chapter 1 - My Old Life

“I’ll be back in about 2 hours, mom!”

“Alright, good luck with your math test!”

Yeah right, like that will help me. I need more than luck right now. I need some more hours to study..

I close the door behind me, and sigh. I’m not exactly feeling well. I haven’t been feeling well for weeks, to be honest. But I absolutely have to do this test. I will fail my class if I don’t.
My thoughts turn elsewhere, as I notice the temperature.

God it’s cold!

I’ve only been outside for a few seconds and my legs are already shaking. I put on my headphones and start walking to my bike, still shaking.

I am going to fail this test so badly, it’s not even funny.

--

I put my bike away, and start walking towards the entrance of the school building.

I am SO dead! I forgot EVERYTHING! Do I even remember my own name? Yes I do, don’t be stupid!

As I enter the building, I’m greeted by warmth. Sweet, delightful, embracing warmth. I start walking to my locker as my music switches. ‘Winter Wrap Up’ turns on next. I quickly turn down my music, afraid of anyone hearing it. My friends know of my bronyness (some interested, some not..) but I’m not exactly keen on letting everyone know I like My Little Pony. I focus my thoughts on the music itself.

Winter Wrap-Up. That would’ve been nice a few hours ago! Atleast it’s warm in here..

I put my jacket in my locker, and start walking towards class. Because of the freezing cold outside, I’m late for my test. I can’t help but chuckle as I imagine Twilight in my mind.

Clock is ticking Twilight. Clock. Is. TICKING!

--

I groan as I’m walking out of the classroom.

“That was. The. Worst. Possible. Test. EVER!”

I quickly grab my jacket, and rush to my bike. I don’t want to stay another second in this place. I just want to get back to my games. And ponies. And.. her. I start cycling harder and harder.

Get over it! It’s not gonna work. No chance in HELL it’s gonna work! Snap out of it!
I can’t stop thinking about her. She is just so special. She is the definition of absolute perfection. She is smart and funny. Maybe a bit crazy sometimes, but that’s what I like about her most. Samantha doesn’t want anything to do with me though. Sigh. Better think of something else.. This is depressing.
I remind myself of the test. Oh good job, this is so much less depressing!

Suddenly I get pulled out of my thoughts by a sense of vertigo. I didn't even notice driving off the edge of the bridge.

Usually there’s a safety rail in place to make sure people don't accidently fall off, but I manage to hit the one spot where they've removed the rail for renovation.

Before I even have the chance to come to terms with what's happening, I break through the ice, my body engulfed in the freezing water.

The cold shock is enough for my mind to catch up with my body, though I can't do anything but panic.

Get. Out! Out out out. So cold! OUT!

I flail around with arms, trying to find the spot where I fell through in the first place. But the freezing water isn’t exactly helping. My body is turning numb from the cold. After a few seconds in the freezing water, the cold is already beginning to affect me. My mind isn’t working as well as I want it to. I can’t think straight anymore. I can’t distinguish up from down and I can’t move my legs or arms anymore. I can feel my eyelids becoming heavy and i can't seem to keep my eyes open any longer.

This is it. This is the part where I die. What a miserable life I’ve had. Can’t focus.. Just.. So cold..

So.. cold…

The last thing I see are my headphones drifting away from me, then it goes black.

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“Now, just a little bit more...” I concentrate and direct a little bit more of my magic into the cauldron and a second later, everything goes black.

Purple? How the hay did it turn out purple?

I groan and close my eyes for a moment, before opening them again and sighing.

Ugh, another failure!

I blow some strands of burnt hair out of my face before looking around the basement of my library.

It's a total mess, books strewn everywhere, blobs of slightly acidic paste splattered across the wall, not to mention all of my lab equipment in tatters. Again.

I sigh deeply, and test out my front legs first, gingerly placing them on the floor without actually putting any weight on them. Then I try my hind legs which I have to put a little weight on, but at least now I can support myself with my front legs. After making sure that my legs can handle my weight and that nothing is broken, I stand up making sure I don't topple over again, dizzy as I am.

Well at least I didn't break anything important. That's something, I suppose.

I move around gingerly, stepping over broken bottles and burned books.

Ugh, cleaning this up is going to take FOREVER.

Then I realise what I just thought about I look around franticly trying to detect any sign of Pinkie Pie, before taking a deep breath and chuckling to myself.

Ofcourse she's not going to be there every time scaredy pants, she's probably too busy harassing Rainbow to go pranking again.

"Twilight? Are you okay?"

The apparent concern in his voice makes me smile. I turn to the stairs to look at the small purple dragon with green scales that has been my assistant for as long as I can remember.

"I'm fine Spike, it was just another accident." I can see him roll his eyes as I continue: "I used too much magic for this batch which made it a tiny bit more volatile than I thought it would" I grin at him sheepishly.

He sighs, and then smiles wryly "I guess I'm the one that's going to have to clean this up?"

I quickly step forward to give him an affectionate nuzzle. "I can clean this up myself Spike, though I would certainly appreciate your help." I glance over to the clock on the wall. Half past ten. "We can even go out and get you some gems once we're finished" I add, smiling back at him.

I swear he's such a glutton. I suppress a smile at the hungry look on his face.

--

"So what were you trying to do this time?" he asks several minutes later, scooping up some of the acidic paste.

"Well actually I was trying to find a new way to make applesauce. Applejack was telling me how hard it was to make it taste good and since I had nothing to do I thought I would help." I clap my hooves together smiling brightly.

It's so great to have friends who rely on me!

Spike looks at me incredulously. “Wait, so she hasn't actually asked you to do this?”

“Well, no, I just thought I'd do something nice for her!”

Spike puts a claw up to his face and sighs deeply, he puts his other claw on my shoulder.

“Twilight, do you remember when you tried to 'help' Fluttershy a couple of weeks ago?”

As he says this, I can't help but frown. “Oh!” I sigh and look at the floorboards. “Right.”

I hope she's gotten over that.

“I was just trying to find a way for her to feed all her animals faster.” I tap my right hoof on the floor sheepishly.
“How was I supposed to know that those turtles were allergic to cabbage?”

I look up and see Spike trying to hold in his laughter “I know, that part was hilarious. I thought Tank was the only one you enchanted to fly!” he finally breaks out in guffaws and topples over clutching his belly with his claws.

In the face of his obvious amusement, I can't help but smile aswell, “Alright Spike that's enough, we still have to finish cleaning this up before my afternoon study session.” I pick up more of the debris with my magic and dump it into the container I have designed especially for that purpose.

–

Spike nudges me, “Hey Twilight, do you think I could have a ruby aswell?” he says while munching on a particularly large emerald.
I give him a long hard look at him and he seems to deflate in his seat. “Nevermind.”
I give him a wry smile before returning to my own sandwich.

Yup, he's definitely a glutton.

Suddenly he burps loudly, covering his face with his claws and trying to shoot a sheepish smile at me. At least, I think that's what he's trying to do.
I just smile back, and take another bite of my sandwich.

It's interesting to see how easy it is to become used to something, I don't even remember the last time I cared about his burping anymore, guess I'll take a look at that new book about pony habits when I get back.

Spike makes a face like he's just swallowed a bug and removes his claws.
And suddenly I find it very hard to keep myself from laughing. Apparently he didn't swallow a bug, but rather a scroll which is now hanging out of his mouth making him look rather silly, that is until I stop and think about it.

Twilight, if he just burped and he has a scroll in his mouth, what does that mean?

The thought sobers me up rather quickly and I suddenly don't feel like laughing anymore, I quickly scramble my magic to get the scroll out of Spikes mouth and hold it in front of me.

Ugh gross.

The scroll is damp from his saliva and dripping a little at the bottom, but luckily I don't have to hold it with my hooves. I break the seal and open it up to read.

‘Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student...'

Author’s Note:
We hope you enjoyed this chapter! You read that right. ‘We’. This is a new idea of me and a really really good friend of mine. He writes the POV of Twilight, I write the POV of the human. English is not our first language so if you see any errors, please send a PM to us and let us know! Perhaps write a comment about it! We would gladly hear your criticism on what could be improved!

Comments

[eclipse162]

Cool story. No mistakes so far, very well written. I'll give it a star for your trouble. And by a star, I mean 5. And a half.

[cheezesauce]

The synopsis attracted me to this story. It would have been interesting to see two different writing styles for two perspectives, but I couldn’t really pick that out.

There are quite a number of errors in the writing. Some aren’t exactly grammatical errors, but the wrong sequence of events. I’ll pick some out from the first scene.

“and sigh”
and sighed.

You notice the temperature, then you feel cold? No, it should be the other way around. Feelings come first.
Repeated word: “shaking”

And here’s another one that pops out later.
“start walking” Started walking. Or why not write something like: I dumped the bike on the bicycle stand, dragging my feet towards the entrance of the school building, or rather, the entrance to my impending doom.
You seem to like to use the word “walking” a lot. Try using other words to spice up your story.

Other than that, the storyline seems pretty ok.

[Crackshot]

cool story, aand an interesting concept. I await more from you. the only thing i see wrong with this is the epic cliffhanger....... It's to epic of a cliffhanger. that is all.

[cheezesauce]

Um... I kinda tried working on your first scene for fun. See if you like my version better.
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“I’ll be back in about 2 hours, mom!” I called out from the front door, a small schoolbag slung onto my shoulder.

“Alright, good luck with your math test!” Her reply echoed back down.

Yeah right, like that will help me.

I opened the door, kicking out a stone out sullenly.

I need more than luck right now. I need... more hours to study.

The door slammed behind me. A sigh escaped my lips.

I wasn’t exactly feeling well. Actually, I haven’t been feeling well for weeks, to be honest. But I absolutely have to do this test. Because if I don’t... I’ll fail my class.

I steered my thoughts elsewhere, eager for a change in topic.

God it’s cold!

I’ve been outside for like... few seconds? But my legs were already shaking. I clamped on my headphones, jammed my hands deep into the pockets, and start walking to my bike.
The dreadful test popped up again in my mind.

I am going to fail so badly, it’s not even funny.

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[Mard93]

I say good chapter.

[xDimitrii]

142414

Thank you =)

The difference in writing styles will really come out in the next chapters. We've kinda written this first one together.

And yes, I actually do use alot of the same words. I am working on that, it's one of the biggest problems with my writing.. .
In the second chapter alone I've rewritten my part about 8 times now, trying to avoid just that.

However, we are trying to write this story in the present tense. We want to make it feel like it's happening right now. So we try to avoid the past tense as much as possible.

[cheezesauce]

143030
Okay, cool :)

I get that 'same word' problem while writing my own story as well. But then I just use the thesaurus for a replacement. It's pretty helpful.

[Meta Knight]

fantastic